Share This Story!

Ohio killer's slow execution raises controversy

The prolonged execution of a condemned Ohio killer Thursday provoked an outcry from death penalty opponents who hope the controversial use of untested lethal injection drugs will delay or ultimately end capital punishment.

The prolonged execution of a condemned Ohio killer Thursday provoked an outcry from death penalty opponents who hope the controversial use of new, untested lethal injection drugs that bring painful deaths may delay or ultimately end capital punishment.

The execution of Dennis McGuire at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility took 25 minutes, a death that defense attorney Allen Bohnert called a "failed, agonizing experiment.''

McGuire, 53, was condemned for the 1989 murder of pregnant 22-year-old Joy Stewart. Bohnert had unsuccessfully tried to block the execution, in part because the lethal injection -- a combination of a painkiller and sedative never used before-- would cause undue agony and terror and violate McGuire's constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment.

The problems surfacing with McGuire's death, as well as last week's execution in Oklahoma of death row inmate Michael Lee Wilson -- who complained that he was "burning" after receiving a lethal mix of drugs including pentobarbital -- could spur many of the nation's 32 death penalty states to re-examine how they condemn convicted killers.

"What's happening is shocking. We're seeing the underside of the death penalty: irresponsible behavior by states and the realization that there's not a good way to kill people,'' says Diann Rust-Tierney, director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "This case and others are going to increase and galvanize those who oppose capital punishment and cause the public and policymakers to say. 'What are we doing?'"

In court proceedings pressing for McGuire's execution, Assistant Ohio Attorney General Thomas Madden had argued that while the U.S. Constitution bans cruel and unusual punishment, "you're not entitled to a pain-free execution."

Several states have been seeking alternative lethal injection compounds since the European Union barred German and Danish drugmakers from selling sodium thiopental, an anesthetic commonly used in lethal injections, to U.S. prisons in December 2011, says Jennifer Moreno of the Death Penalty Clinic at the University of California School of Law. The lone U.S. supplier, Hospira, stopped making the drug in early 2011.

Pentobarbital, a barbiturate used in euthanizing house pets, is considered a controversial alternative to sodium thiopental because it is little-regulated and, if contaminated, can cause extreme pain. In Missouri, where death row inmate Herbert Smulls is scheduled to be executed Jan. 29, state legislator John Rizzo wants all executions halted until it's determined whether the drugs come from pharmacies not licensed in Missouri.

"Two botched executions the past two weeks certainly raises lots of concerns about whether they were carried out in a humane way,'' Moreno says.

Lethal drug shortages have already contributed to a decline in capital punishment. Over the past decade,there were an average of 55 executions a year. But there were only 39 last year and 43 in 2012. And just nine of the 32 death penalty states conducted lethal injections in 2013.

McGuire made loud snorting noises during one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999. Nearly 25 minutes passed between the time the lethal drugs began flowing and McGuire was pronounced dead at 10:53 a.m.

Executions under the old method were usually much shorter and did not cause the kind of sounds McGuire made.

Ohio prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith had no comment on how the execution went but said a review will be conducted as usual. Five more Ohio executions are scheduled this year, the next on Feb. 19.